Week 16 AFC West superlatives: Only the good get presents in their stocking

There were many more bright moments in the AFC West on Sunday than there have been in recent weeks

By Will Osgood@willosgood116  Dec 25, 2019, 8:30am PST

Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports

For the first time in what seems like forever, the AFC West had a great week. Week 16 of the NFL slate provided (almost) only positive moments for the teams in the division.

And since it’s Christmas, there’s no reason to bring any negativity to the table anyway.

Here are the AFC West superlatives:

Defensive Player of the week

Will Compton was outstanding for the Raiders on Sunday. Gruden elicited much praise for his middle linebacker on Monday. “I think he had 12 or 13 tackles. He’s got the green dot. So he’s the one communicating with [Paul Guenther]. He’s checking us out of blitzes into coverage, or vice-versa.”

Apparently, it was also Compton who chided Gruden for not smiling when the head coach came onto the field to check on one of the many injured Raiders players.

Officially, Compton had 10 solo tackles and was credited with two assists. That’s a lot of tackles for a linebacker playing against an offense which mostly threw the football.

He played every snap, helping an otherwise inexperienced defense with a bevy of moving parts, solidify itself against the savvy veteran Philip Rivers.

His addition has been a big reason the Raiders’ defense has shown improvement over the course of the season. Hence, why the team is mathematically still in playoff contention headed into Week 17.